SOURCE OF TRANSFORMATION: Victoria
PLACE OF ORIGIN: El Paso, Texas
HAIR COLOR: Black
EYE COLOR: Brown (human); bright red/black (newborn vampire) HEIGHT: 5‘10‖
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Raoul was wiry.
SPECIAL ABILITIES: He had a limited ability to make others view him as their leader.
It worked best on those who were directionless.
FAMILY/COVEN RELATIONSHIPS: Raoul belonged to the coven of newborns managed by Riley.
PERSONAL HISTORY:
Raoul grew up in southern Texas. He lived with his mother and five siblings. He became very involved in an expanding drug-running gang. Despite his youth, he rose quickly through the gang‘s ranks. When he was fifteen, he shot three members of a competing gang. To keep him from falling into the hands of the law, his gang sent him to Seattle to manage a new branch of the organization. There he excelled, particularly at recruiting new members. Riley found him beating a client who was behind on payments. Riley asked Raoul if he was interested in some real power.
Wary but intrigued, Raoul answered yes.
BREE TANNER
NAME: Bree Tanner
DATE OF BIRTH: March 11, 1990
DATE OF TRANSFORMATION: March 11, 2006, at age 16
SOURCE OF TRANSFORMATION: Victoria
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Las Vegas, Nevada
HAIR COLOR: Dark brown
EYE COLOR: Brown (human); bright red/black (newborn vampire) HEIGHT: 5‘1‖
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Bree had a slight build.
SPECIAL ABILITIES: She did not possess a quantifiable supernatural ability.
FAMILY/COVEN RELATIONSHIPS: Bree belonged to Riley‘s coven of newborns.
Bree believed that her mother left her abusive father when Bree was four; in fact, Bree‘s father murdered her mother.
PERSONAL HISTORY:
Bree was born in Nevada, but lived in Idaho for most of her life. Bree believed that her mother left her abusive father when Bree was four; in fact, Bree‘s father murdered her mother.
He buried the body in the desert, then packed up and moved to Idaho with his young daughter.
Because of the abuse, Bree felt isolated from her peers. She was a quiet, withdrawn girl. No one ever noticed the signs of her abusive home life, despite some physical evidence. Finally, Bree ran away from home a few weeks before her sixteenth birthday. She had enough money for the bus ride to Seattle, but nothing more. She tried unsuccessfully to get a job, and began stealing in order to eat. She slept in parks and alleys — wherever she could find a place that felt a little bit safe. Her biggest fear was that the police would catch her and send her home to her father. She‘d been on the run for less than three weeks when Riley found her digging through a trash bin behind a restaurant.
What Bree never knew was that her mother‘s body had been discovered outside of Las Vegas, and the police tracked down her father a few months after she ran away. When he could not produce Bree, he was tried and found guilty of both murders.
OTHERS MEMBERS OF RILEY‘S COVEN
ADAM After discovering that the sun does not injure vampires, Adam revealed his discovery to Riley. He was killed by Victoria.
CASEY Known to Bree as the ―Spider-Man kid,‖ Casey was a recruit suggested to Riley by Raoul, who had worked with him when they were human.
DOUG Doug was the first newborn to discover that the sun did not harm vampires. He went to Riley with his breakthrough and was killed by Victoria.
JEN Jen was Kristie‘s closest colleague.
KEVIN A member of Raoul‘s faction, Kevin was Raoul‘s second in command. Kevin was a part of Raoul‘s human gang, too, and was taken by Riley upon Raoul‘s suggestion. Riley asked Kevin if he wanted to join Raoul.
KRISTIE Kristie was Raoul‘s main competitor in the newborn coven. She did not have his ability to gain followers through magnetism alone, but she was smarter than Raoul, and better able to manipulate others.
SARAH Sarah did not like working closely with any of the other newborns, but she preferred Kristie‘s crowd to Raoul‘s.
SHELLY AND STEVE Shelly and Steve formed a romantic attachment in the early weeks of their newborn life. After a few months, they decided to abandon the newborn coven.
They are currently nomads.
The Romanian Coven
OFTEN REFERRED TO AS ―DRACULA‘S CASTLE,‖ BRAN CASTLE IS A NATIONAL MONUMENT AND LANDMARK IN ROMANIA. IT WAS BUILT IN
1377—HUNDREDS OF YEARS AFTER THE ROMANIAN COVEN WAS DEFEATED
BY THE VOLTURI.
The Romanian coven dominated the vampire world until it was overthrown by the Volturi, between 400 and 500 A.D. Only two members of the original Romanian coven survive.
STEFAN
NAME: Stefan
DATE OF BIRTH: Unknown
DATE OF TRANSFORMATION: Before 1000 B.C.
SOURCE OF TRANSFORMATION: Unknown
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Dacia (Proto-Romania)
HAIR COLOR: Dark brown
EYE COLOR: Red/black (vampire)
HEIGHT: 5‘3‖
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Stefan is slight and short. He has powdery skin like that of the Volturi, but his eyes are not clouded.
SPECIAL ABILITIES: He does not possess a quantifiable supernatural ability.
FAMILY/COVEN RELATIONSHIPS: He and Vladimir are the last surviving members of their coven.
PERSONAL HISTORY:
Stefan was one of the original twelve ruling members of what is now known as the Romanian coven. (Romania did not exist as a country at the time of the coven‘s inception; that area of Eastern Europe was known as Dacia.)
The Romanians were formed in a way similar to the Volturi: A group of ambitious vampires called a truce to the usual squabbling between small covens and then joined forces for the purpose of gaining power. This prevailing desire to rule allowed them to overcome their competitive drives and cooperate.
The eventual downfall of the Romanians was their focus on physical strength. They created a guardlike entity — a pattern later copied by the Volturi — composed entirely of vampires like Felix and Emmett. Perhaps because none of the ruling members of the coven possessed supernatural abilities themselves, they underestimated the advantage such abilities could give them in battle. They ignored talented vampires in favor of brute strength. This blind spot was understandable, as no one had ever used talents the way the Volturi eventually did. Talents have also grown stronger over the centuries; the talents exhibited by vampires during the Romanian rule were not as potent as the talents that developed in modern times. Much of that is due to vampires learning to seek out talented humans to transform, and also understanding how to focus and improve their talents after the transformation. Aro‘s innovative focus on talent over strength was the reason the Volturi were able to defeat the Romanians, though it took them more than a century, and they never wiped them out completely.